Using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) tunable laser spectrometer, NASA's Curiosity rover has detected the highest concentration of methane ever found in the Martian atmosphere, in the Teal Ridge region of Gale Crater.

While one NASA team attempts to reconnect with the 14-year-old Opportunity Mars rover following a planet-wide dust storm, engineers for another rover located on the opposite side of the planet are troubleshooting a glitch.

Members of NASA's Curiosity team combined individual photos taken by the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the northern flank of Mount Sharp to create a panorama that overlooks the many sites the six-wheeled geologist has visited since landing on Mars in 2012.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has started the steep climb of an iron-oxide bearing ridge on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp that has long been of interest to researchers. "Vera Rubin Ridge", also known as "Hematite Ridge", was informally named in early 2017 in memory of pioneering astrophysicist Vera Cooper Rubin, whose research provided evidence for the existence of dark matter.

As NASA's "Curiosity" Mars rover climbs the slopes of Mount Sharp, the layered mountain at the center of Gale crater, it is finding patterns of change in rock composition in the mountain's higher, younger layers. The rover has also detected the chemical element Boron for the first time on the surface of Mars.

Just two days before the start of the Fourth of July holiday, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity went into an unexpected safe mode, a state that it had not entered since 2013. According to NASA, the nuclear-powered rover has since resumed communications with Earth and engineers are working to restore Curiosity to its full working capacity.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover completed its second Martian year at Gale Crater on Wednesday, May 11. The mission's science team commemorated this important milestone by issuing a weather report of the rover's observations of two full cycles of Martian seasons. Having data on at least two seasonal cycles on Mars helps to distinguish seasonal effects from sporadic events.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover is currently in the midst of the first close-up investigations of sand dunes on a planet other than Earth. The rover recently drove around "Namib Dune" – which stands approximately 13 feet high (4 meters) – to observe its face.

The team working with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover has found the best evidence to date that, billions of years ago, Mars once had lakes that lasted for extended periods of time. This is just the latest discovery concerning the Red Planet's past.

After a long, and at times risky two-year journey, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has reached the base of the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, the primary destination since its landing back in 2012. Mount Sharp is about the same height as Mount Rainier on Earth and sits in the middle of the expansive Gale […]